Help with shared drive

[Pickolizac]

Hi,

One of the issues im facing is im working on this shared drive between two computers. Now here is the catch, the online service the building can get is 56K and thats all it has.

i have created a program that needs to be on a network or shared drive that one if one computer enters any data the other computer will see it!

The issue is on 56k is this possible? How about having a external drive that maybe connected to usb hub and then from there both computers connect to it? would both computers see the shared drive?

Any ideas or solutions are helpful

Thanks in Advance!

[PhilEnfield]

If you are only sharing the drive between the 2 x PCs in the building, the 56k Internet connection will not affect the speed of your internal network.
I take it the PCs are hard wired to the Network (ethernet cables).

[Pickolizac]

the two pc are not on any kind of network!

[PhilEnfield]

Need more info .....

How are the two PCs connected to each other now ? .... or if they aren't, how do you plan to Network them ? ...... how far away from each other are they ?

Maybe it would be better to explain in a bit more detail, exactly what you are trying to achieve and what exists now.

[Pickolizac]

right now they are not, they are probalby 15 feet away from each other and i was thinking of a cross over cable? would that be the best way to go?

I was thinking a cross over cable and then have one external drive that is a shared drive for both of them?

[PhilEnfield]

A crossover cable between the 2 x PCs will allow you to create a simple Network, assuming of course both PCs have spare Network Cards.
You could then add either an Internal HDD or a USB External HDD to either of the PCs and share it on the Network.
This would require The PC with the shared drive to be switched on at ll times to access the shared drive from the remote PC.

If you are on a tight budget, this will work, however, if you are prepared to spend a bit of money, there is a much neater and probably more reliable solution to be had, using a Router and maybe a Network drive.

HTH

[Pickolizac]

yeah thats what i was thinking!

What is the router with network drive solution? how much would that cost and is there inforamtion online that i can look up of how it can be done?

thanks for all this help!

[PhilEnfield]

OK by using a Router and a Network Drive, either PC can access the drive, without the need for the other PC to be switched on.

It's not difficult to set up, you just place the Router by one PC or the other, connect to it, using standard Ethernet cables (not crossovers) from each PC and one to the Network Drive. Then it's a case of setting up the Network, by running the Network wizard on each PC (assuming they are running XP).

I'm not sure of the best deals your side of the Pond, but maybe one of our US members will advise on this.

[Pickolizac]

Ok that sounds good ill check out some prices and see how it goes.

Thanks for all your help!